CHAPTER 1

       Sirens wailed as I began to wake, crossed somewhere between life and death. There was no air in my body, but I sensed I didn't need it yet. The shouts of medical garble entered my ears; the sound of tremors of explosions filled the air, curses followed.

      "Lana don't you dare let go on me now."

      Gale?

       I pushed through the darkness, not fearing it, not afraid of my current predicament. I had to follow his voice, I had to find him.

       "Sir, you need to leave." I felt a hand pull out of my much colder one. The aggressive scuffle of fabric followed.

       "No. You don't understand, I need to be here," His voice was urgent, tearing at the edges. I tried to cry out, to scream that I needed him. The cardiac monitor picked up in the background. A rapid succession of beeps following my distress.

       "See?" Gale cried. His voice became faint, "she needs me!"

       Another gruff voice spoke, this one lower. I could barely hear it through the chatter of the doctors around me. If we were in a room, then the voice and Gale were in the hallway. The voice was low, a sort of baritone, it spoke with authority, conviction. "Agent. The facility is about to collapse, she might not even make it, you have to let it go."

"I'm not leaving her," There was quiet silence. I became aware of the burning hot table underneath my fingers and forearm. My skin crawled and I shuddered, except my body didn't move. I gained feeling in my tongue, a dry, papery feeling. Before I was barely conscious I almost fainted. Another explosion shook the room we were in, the utensils, I assumed they were, clattered on their metal dishes.

"Unit Twelve?" The Baritone voice who I already didn't like spoke. "Forceful evacuation of Gale Lokison activated," A stomp of boots quickly followed and Gale didn't speak anymore, maybe he'd turned  invisible or run off because Baritone cursed and marched away. His rubber boots making angry scuff noises as he walked.

"The procedure is almost finished doctor and we have to go," A female voice urged.

"Wait, we need to-."

He was cut off as the rest of my senses hit me in one painful Mean Girls slap. I sat up crying out, fully awake, my arms twisted painfully behind me. I blinked my eyes open, shaking away the last few painful seconds of the portal. My body buzzed with pins and needles and I almost flopped back onto the operating table. A rather shocked doctor and his nurse stood a couple of steps back, cowering in fear. I blinked away flashes of the portal... Falling... Gale's cries of grief.

Gale.

I tore off the restraints which were already partially broken and leaped off of the operating table.

"Stop!" The doctor cried and grabbed my arm, I looked back at him, ready to spit out a threat but pictures flashed before my eyes; a casual day in the park alone, the doctor grasping at the reports, the watchful eye following his every movement, a black iris looking down the sights of a gun, the pulled trigger, parkgoers scattering like pigeons.

I wrenched my arm out of his grasp, realising the faint glow around him, it was grey, only slightly darker than his surroundings. The nurse behind him was worse, an inch or two of blackness surrounded her form like some sort of demented blanket. It was if the phrase, 'smelt like death' had been taken to a whole new level.

The nurse was running, wearing the same clothes, a SHIELD agent tugging her along, she stumbled back as the cliff face above her crumbled away and flattened them both instantly.

I gasped, bordering on tears, confusion mixed with fear, tears filled my eyes, and I ran. Running past flashing red lights and the occasional agent, a layer of darkness enveloped over them. Each would have a different shade of blackness, fifty shades of death.

I made a sharp left and began to ascend, the ringing sirens and crumbling ceiling above me barely registering. All I wanted to do was escape the visions and the dark glow around every person I saw.

An explosion threw me to the wall and to the ground, causing my fingers to blur in front of me. Unlike everyone else there was no glow around me. Was that a good thing? Or was it bad?

I looked behind me, seeing the Nurse being led by the same SHIELD agent in the vision I'd seen. I opened my mouth to cry out but a portion of the overhang caused by the explosion caved away and they disappeared beneath.

I took in ragged breaths, my brain tumbling to process what had just happened. Suddenly I was wrenched to my feet, flipped head over heels and slammed back into the dirt, groaning. Then again, I was lifted to my feet, to a few meters above the ground like a floating ragdoll.

A face filled my blurry vision, pale and heart-shaped, luminescent green eyes that looked at me with interest. Blonde waves rippled off of her bare shoulders and her green uniform glimmered. Her ruby lips parted and a tinkling laugh echoed out. She was in her early twenties. I shuddered, I could feel the sorcery wrapping around me like a thick blanket, stifling my ability to breath, I began to gasp for air.

"The daughter of death returns to the land of the living," She laughed again like it was an inside joke we both shared.

"Well I didn't exactly come back for you," I rasped, my first words unsteady.

She laughed again and I was getting ready to punch her. I mean, to be honest she was barely half a metre away...

"Amora! Let her go!" A mechanical voice called.

As Amora was laughing for the billionth time I seized her throat, still hovering and swung myself around and pushed her downwards towards Earth, using her body to stop the brunt of the impact. She laid shuddering, on the ground, her eyes slowly falling dark, the dark glow around her increasing in intensity.

"Sister!" A voice cried and I spun around to see a girl almost identical to Amora. She was slightly younger, maybe by a few years, her hair was redder than Amora's and she wore a blue dress that reminded me of a Greek chiton. Her eyes widened at the sight of the unmoving Amora, then to me. Her lips curled and she snarled.

She ran at me, landing blows faster than I could react, sending me curling into the dirt like one of those whack-a-mole games. I managed to scramble back to my feet as she landed another volley of punches. Screeching as she did so. I put my forearm up to stop it but it did nothing.

Fed up with the bruises that were forming upon my skin, I ducked under her next punch, grabbed her by the ear and threw her over my body. Slamming her into the ground like a WWE champion, then seizing her throat and lifting her up. She scrabbled at my hands, fear evident in her eyes, she raked her nails across my skin but I paid no attention to the pain. Her neck was soft and I felt her pulse, beating fast as I slowly crushed it under my tight grip.

The veins in my arm darkened and I almost jerked away at the familiar sight of the Mist. It wrapped its tendrils around her neck and she began to choke. The glow around her increased in intensity.

"Lana stop!" I blinked at the name, it'd been too long since I'd heard it. My fingers loosened and the girl dropped to the floor, retching.

I whirled around turning to see a bright Iron Man in the light, I winced at the glare. He took a step forwards, the metallic fingers gentle even in their solid state.

His death. Something within me cried and I jerked away, crying out as I did so. I fell to the ground, my fall softened by the brittle dead leaves underneath my hands. He dropped his outstretched hand as I clenched my eyes shut hoping that it was all a very very bad dream.